


International Treasure

by etextraordinary



Category: Glee, National Treasure (2004), National Treasure Series, National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), The New Normal
Genre: Kurt_Big_Bang_2014, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 18:18:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1314538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etextraordinary/pseuds/etextraordinary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is spending the summer in Lima, helping his father at the Garage and planning his wedding, when a lazy afternoon at Blaine's changes their summer plans entirely.  Blaine's parents, David and Bryan (from the New Normal) are paid a visit by David's old partner, Benjamin Gates (from National Treasure).  Ben has found a trail that leads to billions of dollars worth of Nazi plunder, and he plans on finding it.  Ben needs David's tech savvy assistance on this trip.  Bryan is reluctant to go, but eventually gives in.  When Ben learns that Blaine and Kurt are both very proficient in French, he insists that they join their treasure hunting party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lima, Oh

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to my betas, they are amazing and this fic would not be like a third of what it is without them, they are amazing. This fic was partially inspired by ridiculous jokes about a "National Treasure" and "The New Normal" crossover and how Ben would never get David/Riley's name right between Fidesrationem and I. Another huge, gigantic thank you needs to go to Princechriscolfer for the amazing and perfect art she made for my little fic. I literally gasped when I first saw her work, it is perfect for this story! The goal of this fic is to make you laugh, I hope it does!
> 
> Artwork: http://princechriscolfer.tumblr.com/post/79595133521/art-for-the-kurt-big-bang-this-goes-with-an

Kurt was just getting comfortable, with Blaine snuggling into his side while watching reruns of _Tabatha Takes Over_ when the doorbell rang. Blaine grumbled and snuggled close, until it rang a second time and Kurt nudged him to go get it.

“But what if it’s someone trying to convert me to their religion?” Blaine whined.

“Then you politely tell them to leave so we can get back to cuddling.”

Kurt leaned over the back of the couch so he could watch as Blaine trudged over to the door, then pulled it open to reveal a tall man with short brown hair and overly whitened teeth. Kurt could barely see the man, but he could tell from the way that Blaine stiffened slightly as he opened the door he didn’t know the man and was even more upset by the interruption

“You must be Blaine.” The man said.

“Do I know you?” Blaine asked, very confused. Kurt squinted, he could have sworn he had seen the man’s face before, but couldn’t place it. He just figured it was because he was so far away, if he were closer he would be able to clearly see that he didn’t know the man.

“I believe we met once, when you were very young, maybe three or four years old. My name is Ben,” he said, almost overly confident that Blaine would remember him and wrap him in a hug. Kurt didn’t like the way this guy, Ben, was talking one bit. The only word Kurt could come up with was ‘smarmy’.

Blaine just stood there, getting more and more confused by the minute. “I’m afraid I don’t remember you.”

“Well you were very little at the time. Regardless, is Riley in?” Ben stepped closer, but Kurt could see Blaine stand his ground.

“I’m sorry.” Blaine shook his head, trying desperately to come up with a way to signal Kurt to call the police. “There is no one here by that name.”

Ben looked momentarily stunned, before his smile returned, “That’s right, I forgot he stopped using the pseudonym when he met your father. David then. Is he home?”

Blaine went from confused to terrified and concerned for his safety in just a matter of seconds. He didn’t really think this man would hurt him, but didn’t they always say that the people you least expect to be able to cause harm were the ones who were most likely to do it? Blaine responded, “I’m sorry, sir. There isn’t anyone here by that name, and I have to go now.”

Blaine quickly shut the door and locked it before letting out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He turned around to see Kurt looking at him, the worried expression he knew was written across his own face mirrored in Kurt’s.

Blaine shook his head, “I just need to call my dad.”

Blaine quickly called him, wanting to double check that it wasn’t some cooky family relative or something before calling the police.

“Hey, Blaine. What’s up? I’m really busy.”

“Hi Dad. Sorry to bother you, I know you were shooting today. Just there is this man that showed up at our door, he asked for Riley and I think he said his name was Ben.”

Blaine could hear his dad sigh on the other end of the line, followed by a long pause. 

“Dad?” Blaine asked, “Should Kurt call the police?”

“No.” His dad sounded annoyed, “That’s not necessary. I’ll give David a call and let him know; he’s an old acquaintance of your Papa’s, we’ll be home soon. Just try to relax and we’ll take care of it.”

“Ok, thanks, Dad. We’ll see you in a bit.” Blaine sounded a little relieved.

As soon as Blaine hung up the phone, Kurt asked, “What did your Dad say? Do we need to call the police? What on earth is going on?”

Blaine exhaled heavily, “No, we don’t need to call the police. He is apparently an old friend of Papa’s. Dad said they would be home soon.”

Blaine was just staring off into space; Kurt was really worried about him. He had never seen Blaine this upset before.

“Should we go finish that episode of Tabatha?” Kurt asked, not sure if it was the right thing to say. But Blaine’s reaction proved to Kurt that it was, his face lit up a little bit and he looked a little bit more like his fiancé.

“Yeah.” Blaine bit his lip, “But do you think we could go watch it in the basement?”

Kurt noticed how Blaine glanced at the front door, double checking it was locked and at the windows to see if anyone was peering in, thankfully there wasn’t. “Yeah, I think that’d be a great idea.” 

Kurt grabbed Blaine’s hand and led him down into the basement and onto the oversized leather sofa. They snuggled up together and turned the TV back on to watch the end of the episode of Tabatha they had started. Before long, they both had dozed off and were snoring lightly.

***  
Blaine woke up confused, not sure why he was on the large sofa in the basement, but Kurt’s familiar weight against him made him care a lot less. The events of the afternoon slowly came back to him, piecing together the man at the door, the worry and fear that may have been ridiculous but nevertheless was very real. Then the voices drifted down from upstairs, Blaine could pick out each of his father’s unique voices, and one he didn’t really recognize. One that was louder than either of his dads. Ben, he remembered, and pulled Kurt closer. The boys stayed that way until Bryan came down to check on them.

“What are you boys doing down here?”

“Mr. Anderson!” Kurt shot up and off of Blaine landing at the other side of the couch. Despite being engaged, Kurt couldn’t help the instinctual reaction to not be draped across his fiancé when his father entered the room. Not that it was anything Bryan and David hadn’t seen or done before, but still, Kurt felt weird talking to them while laying on their son.

Bryan chuckled and said, “Hi Kurt. Blaine, how are you doing?”

“I’m alright, Dad. How are you?”

Bryan sat down on the ottoman, letting out a long breath before saying, “Long day. Actresses not wanting to leave NYC to come shoot here; the usual.”

“Say, Dad.” Blaine started cautiously, “Who is this Ben guy that was at the door?”

Kurt saw Bryan sigh deeply, “He is an old acquaintance of your Papa’s. He is staying for dinner and I’m sure they will explain everything, meanwhile I will be trying to forget the whole thing in a glass of cabernet.”

Kurt laughed, “That bad, huh?”

Bryan’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Kurt, “Let’s put it this way. David and I didn’t meet until after he graduated from med school. There was a lot of time before that point. Ben is from the time before I met David.”

With that, Bryan stood up and told them that dinner would be ready in a half hour, and that Kurt should stay. Bryan went back upstairs, they could see him pause and steel himself before opening up the door from the basement.

Kurt looked at Blaine, “What do you think?”

“I have no idea, but I am curious.” Blaine said scooting over to sit next to Kurt, “Anything that would cause Papa to have a pseudonym has to be an excellent story. I can always use some new material to drive him crazy.”

Kurt laughed, “You’re terrible.”

“Maybe.” Blaine kissed him, “But you love me.”

Kurt grinned widely, “That I do. I do very much!” Kurt kissed Blaine again, pulling him so that Blaine was straddling his lap.

Blaine breathed, “God, I love it when you say that.”

Kurt was momentarily confused, “What?”

“I love it when you say, ‘I do’. It is just the most perfect phrase from your lips.”

Kurt smiled, “Yeah, well it doesn’t sound too bad from yours either, there Mister.”

“Mmmm,” Blaine kissed him again, “I can’t wait to be your husband.”

Kurt feigned offence, “But Blaine, there are so many exciting things we haven’t done yet as fiancés!”

“Yeah?” Blaine kissed him, “Like what?”

“Well,” Kurt slid his hands down Blaine’s back, slipping them inside Blaine’s jeans and briefs. “I haven’t fingered you in your parent’s basement as your fiancé yet.”

Blaine pulled back from where he was mouthing at Kurt’s neck, thinking, “Hmmm, you’re right. You haven’t done that yet. And I haven’t ridden you down here since I asked you to marry me.”

“Uh huh.” Kurt sucked a spot low on Blaine’s neck, just barely hidden by his shirt. Then he added, “I think that maybe we should fix that problem.”

“I think that is an excellent idea.” Blaine stood up, making to take off his clothes.

“Boys, five minutes until dinner.” David called down the stairs.

“Crap” Kurt sighed pressing a palm to his hardening cock, willing his hard-on to go away. Dinner with the Andersons with a boner was not something he needed to experience.

Blaine’s head dropped to his chest and he heaved a sigh. “I swear they must know or something, their timing is impeccable.”

Kurt nodded, “It must be a parent thing, mine are just as good at it.”

“The entire world is just out to stop us from having amazing fiancé sex.” Blaine huffed.

Kurt stood up and wrapped his arms around Blaine, “Not everyone, or at least not all the time.” Blaine looked confused, Kurt added, “Dad said it was ok if I spent the night here.”

Blaine’s eyes lit up, “Do you know what that means?”

Kurt laughed and squeezed Blaine tighter, “Yeah I do. I get to sleep cuddled next to you tonight.”

“No! It means that we can have fiancé sex in my bed and then sleep together then wake up together. That would be another first!”

Kurt shook his head, “I think you might be taking this ‘Fiance Firsts’ thing a little too seriously.”

Blaine pulled away in mock affront, “Hey!”

Kurt tried to pull him back in, but Blaine twisted out of his arms and started up the stairs two at a time. Kurt chased after him, catching his wrist just as he was about to open the door. Kurt pressed himself behind Blaine and whispered in his ear, “I can’t wait to wake up next to you, fiancé.”

***  
Kurt had always thought, ever since the first time he was over at Blaine’s for dinner, that it wasn’t awkward being a couple around Blaine’s dads. Unlike the first time Blaine was over at his house for a Friday Night Dinner and Dad had questioned him mercilessly until Carole stopped him nearly 20 minutes later. Kurt apologized to Blaine for the next few days, surprised when Blaine said that he wanted to come to dinner the next Friday. 

Dinner at the Andersons, well the Collins-Andersons, was always pleasant. The first time Kurt had met Blaine’s parents he didn’t know what to expect, he had heard stories about how his Dad had encouraged him to play football and baseball and encouraged an interest in cars. But when he didn’t really enjoy those things, Blaine said his Papa helped him with his theater interests. Originally Kurt thought that Blaine had two names for his father, and that maybe his mother worked a lot, but when Blaine mentioned his two Dads, it all made sense.

Bryan and David were always very nice and happy to see him. He always wondered if they saw something of themselves in him and Blaine. One night they had invited Kurt over to help them celebrate their anniversary, popping a bottle of champagne (and a bottle of sparkling cider for Kurt and Blaine, although they poured each of the boys a little bit of champagne too) and they told the whole story of how they met. How they conceived of Blaine, and what his original name was going to be (Sawyer Collins, and how they changed it when he was barely a year old). And all about Blaine’s aunts Goldie and ‘step-sister’ Shania, and his ‘step-brother’ Cooper. Blaine had told Kurt that they moved from California to Ohio when Papa’s show ended and they wanted to be closer to family, but Kurt never really knew who that family was.

Kurt hoped that someday Blaine and him could be like Bryan and David. They were so happy together, with each other, and they had been together for nearly 30 years. They had what Kurt wanted, a life with the man he loved, a family who loved them, and a child or two and some pets. Just sitting at the dinner table with his hand resting on his fiancé’s leg with his fiancé’s family, gave him the assurance he needed to know that he already had most of the pieces of the happy life he fantasized about, and the rest just needed a little bit of time.

Kurt was broken out of his happy reverie when Ben loudly asked a question.

“So, Riley… David. That’s going to take some getting used to. When did you switch your name to Anderson?” Ben bellowed.

“Uh, a few years ago at our recommitment ceremony. Bryan and I decided that we wanted to have something to link us all together as a family. So we all took the name Anderson on.” David answered.

“And what happened to Riley Poole?”

“Who?” Bryan asked.

David turned to look at his husband, “That was the pseudonym I used when I was hunting with Ben.” He looked back at Ben, “I only used that name when I was with you. I wanted to have all the adventures, without any of it landing on my record. Unfortunately I never anticipated finding the treasure the century and that it wouldn’t be attached to me. Oh well, I have all the treasure I need right here.” David ruffled Blaine’s hair, or well attempted to as Blaine swatted his hand away quickly fixing any hair that may have been moved out of place.

“That is just so sweet.” Ben smiled taking a bite of his dinner.

“Wait, Dad?” Blaine asked, “Hunting?”

“Yeah, Ben and I used to be treasure hunters.”

Kurt dropped his fork with a loud clang on his plate. “You helped discovered the lost treasure in New York!”

David blushes slightly and Ben blurts, “Yeah, we did! Man, that was the find of a lifetime!”

Kurt could see Bryan roll his eyes out of the corner of his eye, wondering what that’s all about. He ignored Blaine’s Papa for the moment in favor of asking more about the treasure from Ben and David. “Tell me everything. We learned about it a little bit in school, but it must have been so cool to find it. How did you do it anyway?”

“Well…” David started but was quickly interrupted by Ben.

“There were a lot of clues and a little bit of luck.”

Bryan scoffed, “You call that luck? The time you nearly got my husband arrested and put in federal prison for 25 years? And how he nearly got shot? And was almost killed by a 200-year-old staircase!”

“Bryan, please. I’m fine.”

“I know you are, but if you hadn’t been, then I would have never met you and I would still be the lonely bachelor in charge of a famous TV series.”

David reached across the table to take his hand, “I know. But none of that happened, and I’m here. I love you.”

Bryan squeezed his hand, “I love you too.”

“Can I tell the story now that you two are done being sappy and gross?” Ben asked.

Bryan sighed, “Oh, fine.”

Blaine and Kurt looked at him slightly excited and also very concerned about the story they were about to hear.

David started, “It was the mid-eighties, about a year and a half before I met your Papa.”

Ben took over the story when David paused to take a breath, “I met Riley in his college American History class. I was auditing the class and trying to gather information for my hunt. My grandfather told me a story about a man named Louis Caroll and how he had information about the hidden treasure in the late 1700s. Then it was passed down through the generations until it reached me. I knew I had to find ‘Charlotte’, who turned out to be a ship. There we found a pipe, which led us to a code written in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence, which eventually led us to 18th Century 3D glasses hidden where the Declaration was signed and then to a church in New York which had the treasure housed below it.”

“Wow” Kurt breathed. Blaine just stared at the stranger, stunned and worried.

“Yes, it was quite the adventure. If only our financial backer hadn’t decided to take matters into his own hands, it would have been a very smooth process.”

Bryan took a large gulp of his wine, “Yes, if only…”

“It was fun,” David added. “I haven't thought about it in years. But it was quite the adventure.” There was a glimmer Kurt couldn’t quite identify in his eye, but the way that Bryan looked worried and was tossing back the rest of his wine told him that it might not be something good.

“Well, David, maybe you should tell the boys about the time you assisted in the kidnapping of the president,” Bryan added sarcastically.

David looked between his son and his husband warily before adding, “I think that might be a story for another night.” He did everything in his power to change the subject, “So, Ben, what brings you to our home in Ohio?”

“Oh well, I actually was wondering if you felt up for one last hunt?”

“No,” Bryan said at the same time David added, “What’s it for?”

Ben ignored Bryan and said, “Nazi plunder. I had the opportunity to read the notes of Rodolfo Siviero, an Italian expert and he found much of the plunder in the early years after the war. But he found maybe a quarter of what was hidden, using his notes plus new information about strategies during the war, I believe I have found some possible locations of the missing items. Also, I may be able to investigate the recent finds in the apartment outside of Munich.”

Bryan shook his head in disbelief, “You expect me to believe that you know the location of possibly billions of dollars worth of stolen and lost art? And that you want David to come help you find it? And you’re telling him this in front of our son and his boyfriend? Really? This has to be some sort of joke.” Bryan looked at David and asked, “This is some sort of excellent prank you are playing on me right? Ashton is going to jump out of the closet or something and tell me that I was Punk’d, right?”

Kurt couldn’t help but smile at what he said; the idea of Ashton coming out of any closet was just comical. Or maybe he needed to stop hanging out with Santana.

“No prank.” David said, “Unless I’m being pranked too.” David looked at Blaine and Kurt. 

“No prank. It’s real. Some people who heard about our discoveries in the past got in touch with me and wanted to fund this search.” Ben said matter-of-factly.

Kurt couldn’t read David’s expression, but Bryan’s was very clear – he picked up his glass of wine and just started drinking it down, until David put his hand on the glass and gently pulled it away, nearly half the glass later. Blaine just looked excited about the prospect of a summer trip with his dads.

The entire table was quiet, except for Bryan drinking his wine entirely too quickly. Kurt was afraid to move. He doesn't know what to make of it. It would be amazing to go to Europe this summer; he had always dreamed of going to Paris. He was drawn to the romance of it. He had never really thought of going to other parts of Europe, Italy, maybe, but Germany and Austria – wasn’t that just full fat guys drinking beer? No, Kurt knew it wasn’t, because the moment the thought crossed his mind, he remembered Heidi Klum, one of his favorite models was German.

Kurt wanted to go, and if he could read his fiancé as well as he thought he could, Blaine wanted to go as well. Although Kurt was sure his dad would be eight thousand percent opposed to him traveling abroad for the first time with Blaine and his family, even if he didn’t know it was a treasure hunt, and would be even more strongly against it then.

Kurt watched as Ben surveyed the table, tackling the most-likely to give in first.

“Ril… David, don’t you remember how much fun we had on our previous hunts?”

Bryan answered first, “Yes, getting shot at and nearly falling down an old abandoned pit under the New York subway is my definition of fun.”

David put his hand on Bryan’s, much like Blaine did when Kurt was getting worked up, he figured that must be where Blaine gets it from, “Bry, you’re exaggerating.”

Bryan rounded on his husband, “So you’re saying that getting shot at isn’t a big deal! So we should just send Blaine to get shot at because its good fun!”

“Woah!” David responded, “I didn’t say that, and this has nothing to do with Blaine and Kurt.”

Kurt grabbed Blaine’s hand, squeezing it gently for comfort. Blaine looked at him and smiled slightly.

“Well, actually,” Ben started. Everyone’s attention shifted to him, “Do either of you boys speak German?”

Kurt shook his head and Blaine said, “No, we both take French. Or well, I still take it, Kurt passed the AP test with flying colors.”

“French?” Ben looked hopeful, “That’s great, my French is very rusty. How is your German, Bryan and David?”

“I learned Latin in school, and that’s all I use now, besides some rudimentary Spanish.” David responded, “But Bryan is excellent at German and Spanish, as well as Italian.”

“I can only read wine labels in Italian.” Bryan said, not disputing the other claims.

Ben looked positively giddy with excitement, “Can you really speak German?”

“Yeah. My family made me learn it, its in our heritage.”

“That’s perfect. You can help out in Germany and Austria, as well as in Italy if necessary. Then the boys will be very helpful in France. David and I are pretty useless with our languages, but we have the hunting experience. This sounds like a great team is shaping up!”

“Woah.” Bryan said, “No, absolutely not. There is no way I am sending my son and his fiancé with you and David on a treasure hunt. Its much too dangerous for boys their age.”

“Dad! We are plenty old enough to make up our own minds.” Blaine said, his voice almost surprising after not having spoken in so long.

“Careful, Blaine.” Bryan warned.

Blaine sighed, slumping slightly in his chair.

“Look, the boys are both eighteen, right?” Ben asked, Bryan and David both nodding, “Then they can make up their own minds. I won't force them to do anything they don’t want to do. But I would love having them along, if they decide they want to come on the hunt.”

Bryan and David looked at each other, sharing the same look that Kurt shared with Blaine. Cautious and wondering where they would go from here, and who would be the next to speak.

Bryan shocked everyone at the table when he asked, “Would it really be safe?”

All eyes were on Bryan and his family was shocked silent, Ben seemed unphased, “As far as I know, I am the only one who has made these connections, and my German contact assured me that she won’t be sharing the information with anyone else.”

Bryan looked unconvinced. Ben added one last assurance, “Everyone will be perfectly safe, no guns, no old caverns to fall down, no kidnappings. Nothing illegal, or at least nothing with a jail sentence.”

Bryan sighed and nodded at David. David asked Blaine, “What do you think?”

“It sounds like a fun adventure, and a great way to get to go to Europe, again.”

Bryan turned to Kurt, sighing, “You’ll have to ask your Dad first.”

Kurt nodded, he knew that Dad would never let him go. “I will, Bryan.”

Bryan smiled and said to Ben, “So when are we going?”

Ben was positively beaming while he discussed the timeframe and expected travel plans. Kurt’s hand squeezed Blaine’s and was happy to think that instead of an uneventful and relaxing summer break in Lima, he was going to be spending it in Europe, eating wonderful food, seeing all the sights, and hunting treasure with his fiancé.

***  
The next morning Kurt was helping his Dad in the shop, not fixing anything today, just organizing the office files and cleaning out the clutter so they could fit a second desk in the small office.

His Dad walked in wiping his hands on a dirty cloth tucked into his belt , “Hey Kiddo. It looks good in here. Thanks for your help.”

“Hi, Dad. No problem, I’m happy to help.”

“You got home late last night, how was dinner at Blaine’s?”

Kurt looked down and blushed. After dinner he had gone upstairs with Blaine and started looking at different things they would like to visit in Austria. Kurt had fixated on Vienna, where all the high-end fashion shops were, and even a few design houses he had his eyes on for a while. Blaine on the other hand thought Salzburg and Innsbruck sounded more interesting, quaint smaller Austrian towns. And Blaine couldn't deny the appeal of the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg!

“We were marathoning Project Runway and lost track of time.” It wasn’t a complete lie, Project Runway was on in the background while they were doing their research. 

Burt smiled knowingly, “You know, son, you don’t have to lie to me. It’s ok. I know what someone wants to do with their fiancé. I’ve been engaged before… twice actually.”

Kurt couldn’t help but smile, “Thanks, Dad. But we were sort of watching the show. We were doing research on places to visit in Europe.”

“Isn’t it a little early to be thinking about your Honeymoon?”

“Well, this isn’t exactly for the honeymoon.”

Burt looked confused, he waited patiently for his son to continue.

“Last night at dinner, David’s old friend Ben dropped in unexpectedly.”

Burt waved his hands encouragingly trying to get Kurt to get to the point.

“Yeah, so, David knows Ben from before Med School, and they were treasure hunters. They found the lost treasure under New York and also uncovered presidential secrets a few years later.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Your Mom was so excited to see the exhibit tour when it came to Columbus. We waited outside in the snow for four hours before we could get in.”

Kurt smiled, he still treasured any story about his Mom, “Well, Ben thinks he has found hidden Nazi Plunder, worth potentially billions of dollars, and he’s asked David, Bryan, Blaine, and I to help him uncover it.”

Burt stared at Kurt in disbelief.

“Bryan was against the idea for a long time then finally he caved. Ben says it will be safe, no guns, no illegal activity. Blaine and his dads are going, they would like me to come along too. And you know I have always wanted to see Paris.”

“Let me get this straight, you are asking me if I'll let you go on a treasure hunt with your fiancé?”

“To put it simply, yeah.”

“I don’t even know what to say…” Burt trailed off.

Kurt took the opportunity to try and convince him, “If it were really dangerous, Bryan and David would never let Blaine go, you know that. Besides, his dads will be going along too. I promise we’ll be safe!”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Burt said flatly.

Kurt knew his Dad would just say no. He wouldn’t flat out forbid it, but he would strongly disapprove, and Kurt hated to disappoint his father.

“Its ok, Dad. I know. It isn’t a good idea, it was really just a pipe dream anyway.”

“Let me finish.” Burt said raising his voice slightly to ensure he had Kurt’s attention, “I didn’t say you shouldn’t go. I’m saying you can’t promise me you’ll be safe when you are going after treasure that’s been hidden for nearly seventy years. There could be so many dangers that you have never thought of before. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go. I think you should take this opportunity to have the adventure. You’re young, you won’t miss any school for it, and you’ll have a wonderful story to tell regardless of whether or not you find the treasure.

I had an opportunity to go on an amazing adventure right after high school, but I decided to go to work instead, save up money so I could buy your Mom a beautiful engagement ring. But you’re already engaged, and your fiancé is going with you. I think is something that if you want to do it, you should. You will regret it forever if you don’t.”

Kurt couldn’t believe what his Dad just said, it couldn’t be real. “Dad?”

“Do you want to go?”

“I do, but isn’t it dangerous and silly?”

Burt laughed, “Maybe, but all the best adventures are.”

“So you’re saying I can go?”

“If that’s what you want to do, then yes. Carole and I will miss having you around this summer, but we miss you all school year too. So this won’t be much different.”

Kurt threw his arms around his dad holding him tight. “Thank you so much! You are the best!”

Burt chuckled, holding his son a little closer, “Anytime. Now go call Blaine, I’m sure he’s dying to hear if you're going with them or not.”

Kurt lingered just a minute longer before leaving to call his fiancé.

The phone rang more times than it normally did when he called Blaine, usually picking up on the first or second ring. But this time it nearly went to voicemail before Blaine’s out of breath voice was on the other end.

“Hi! Sorry, my phone was in the other room.”

Kurt laughed, “Hi.”

“So… Did you talk to your Dad?”

“Yeah I did.” Blaine sounded too excited, Kurt couldn’t help himself from teasing him just a little bit.

“Well, what did he say?”

“He told me that I couldn't promise to be safe.”

Blaine sounded confused when he asked, “So what does that mean?”

“It means that Dad said I shouldn’t pass up this opportunity for and adventure. He said if I wanted to go I should.”

“Oh my god, Kurt! I can’t believe it!”

“I actually kinda can. But it is so… so awesome. We get to go to Europe together and hunt for treasure. How is that real?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t wait to go!”

“Me either!” Kurt said smiling, as much as he couldn’t believe that this was his reality, he was very glad it was. This would be the adventure of a lifetime!

***


	2. Berlin and Munich, Germany

The flight from New York city was longer than Kurt envisioned; he knew it was eight and a half hours, but he didn’t really understand what it meant until he was in hour five, wide awake with his fiancé snoring and drooling on his shoulder. Kurt sighed, trying to not shift the arm Blaine was sleeping on while he reached for his phone to play a game. As much as the movies romanticized them, Trans-Atlantic flights sucked.

Kurt wasn’t aware he had fallen asleep again, after miserably playing angry birds for over an hour, until Blaine nudged him in the side so he could accept the breakfast tray being set down in front of them. That was one thing Kurt didn’t mind about the long flight, there was no shortage of food. They had dinner, dessert, optional snacks in the middle of the night, and breakfast. Kurt really couldn’t complain too much – other than being cramped in a small space for almost nine hours.

“We’ll be landing soon.” Blaine said, “Did you sleep well?”

“Eh,” Kurt took a sip of the coffee and grimaced, it really wasn’t very good, “I had a hard time getting comfortable; it’s hard to sleep sitting up.”

Blaine bumped his shoulder and said suggestively, “I’m sorry. Maybe we can take a nap later.”

Kurt turned as far as he could in the narrow confines of the seat. “No way. I did not spend nine hours in an airplane to spend the day napping in a hotel room. If we come this far, we need to do some sightseeing, that is, if Ben’s schedule allows it.”

“I think he has a meeting today with the woman who worked closely to the guy that found all the other stuff.”

Kurt laughed, “Very descriptive, Blaine.”

“Shut up. I don’t want to spread word on the plane, just incase someone else gets the same idea.”

“Blaine, as far as I can tell, we are the only native English speakers on this flight, everyone else seems to be speaking German.”

“Yeah, well. You know Germans learn English very early in school, so they can probably understand us.”

Kurt hummed his agreement. “So, if he has a meeting, what are we going to do?”

Just as he asked the question, David turned around from where he was sitting and explained the plan once they landed. Dropping their bags off at the hotel, getting a quick lunch, Ben and David attending a meeting, which Bryan also insisted on attending. Thus leaving Kurt and Blaine free for the afternoon until they were meeting up at “19:00” for dinner.

“Well, I guess that means we can go sightseeing and might still have time for a nap,” Blaine looks hopeful at Kurt, hoping he would get that nap didn’t just mean nap.

“What should we see?” Kurt asked. Blaine pulled out his phone with the lists of all the things they wanted to see from each of the cities. They were looking over it debating whether they should go see the capitol or go to Museum Island and see some of the classics, which of course had been plundered from Greece and Egypt, when the pilot announced they would be landing shortly and all electronics needed to be powered down.

Once they had gathered their bags from the carousel, and gone through customs. Ben led them to a private car he had hired. They reached their hotel, located right near the main train station fairly quickly and checked in. When they got to the rooms, Kurt realized Ben had booked three separate rooms, one for himself, one for Bryan and David, leaving Kurt and Blaine to have their own hotel room.

Blaine whispered in Kurt’s ear, just to be sure his fathers didn’t hear him, “Looks like we won’t have to sneak an afternoon nap after all. We have the entire night to ourselves.”

Kurt smirked and just pulled Blaine into the room behind him. He ditched the bags by the door and pulled Blaine to the bed, pushing him down before lying down on top of him. Kurt kissed him soundly, deepening the kiss when Blaine opened his mouth. Kurt pushed Blaine’s arms above his head, holding them there with one hand while the other slipped up under Blaine’s shirt. They began to slowly grind into each other, when a loud knock on the door startled them.

“Come on, boys.” Bryan called, “Its lunch time, you can make out later.”

Blaine groaned, cursing his Dad’s uncanny ability to know when things are just getting good with Kurt. Kurt buried his face in Blaine’s shoulder, releasing his hold on Blaine’s hands, sighing before placing a single kiss there and pushing up off of Blaine.

Once standing, Kurt helped Blaine straighten out his clothes, making themselves look presentable, and Kurt quickly changing into a different shirt, one that didn’t smell like an airplane. Within five minutes they were back on the street following Ben to the restaurant he picked for lunch.

***  
They walked down the street, Unter den Linden, hand in hand. Bryan and David holding hands, Kurt and Blaine holding hands, with Ben leading the way. Kurt couldn’t help but think of Madeline and the girls being led down the street two by two. Only this time the mischief wasn’t going to come from the little girl at the back, but from the man leading them. Kurt sighed, Blaine looked over at him giving his hand a squeeze.

Ben led them to a restaurant and had Bryan ask for a private table near the back of the restaurant. Kurt and Blaine shared a look of concern, a private table at the back couldn’t mean anything good. Thankfully their reservations were incorrect. Ben just wanted a chance to discuss the plan once more with everyone present.

After Bryan ordered drinks for everyone, Ben said, “Today David and I are meeting with Dr. Harriette Schneidermann.”

Bryan cast a glance at his husband, who then stated, “Bryan is going to join us for the meeting. I think it might be useful to have someone who speaks German to be there.”

Ben nodded, “Of course. So Kurt and Blaine, you are free to do whatever you would like this afternoon.

“Then tomorrow morning we are going to head out, I’m not sure where yet, maybe Salzburg, or Vienna, possibly Cologne or Munich. Dr. Schneidermann said she had key information in tracking the lost art.”

“How does she know about it?” Kurt asked, no longer able to contain his curiosity.

“She was married to Cornelius Gurlitt, son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, who had the art stored in his apartment. She was still married to Gurlitt when the art was discovered, and in fact it is part of the reason their marriage ended. As an art historian, she couldn’t believe someone close to her would keep these masterpieces from the public.”

Blaine looked at Ben suspiciously, still distrustful of him, “How do you know all this?”

“She is a friend of a friend, which is why she is trusting us with this project. Also I spoke with her on the phone and have met her in person the last time she was visiting New York.”

Kurt watched Blaine nod in agreement, his own suspicions growing. 

They ate lunch quickly, discussing general plans and how to go about various scenarios. Kurt was getting steadily more and more tired, nearly nodding off in his potato salad at one point. Blaine nudged him awake and said, “Maybe we should go back to the hotel and take a nap after all.”

“Blaine.” Kurt said with a warning tone in his voice, “I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t spend all of our free time in Europe in our hotel room?”

Blaine put his hand on Kurt’s shoulder, rubbing gently, “I did, but you are falling asleep at the table, I think it might be a good idea to take a nap.”

Kurt started to respond, but all that came out was a jaw-cracking yawn. Kurt nodded his agreement before adding, “We should at least take the scenic walk back to the hotel so we see something while we are in Berlin. Its one of the great cities of the modern world!”

“Deal,” Blaine stated, planting a kiss on Kurt’s cheek.

Not long after, they were done with lunch and heading in separate directions, with explicit instructions to stay out of trouble and to text Bryan if any problems arose. Kurt and Blaine walked back to their hotel past the Jewish Memorial, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichtstag. Blaine noting that the way they were walking, essentially took them back in time from remembering the holocaust to the divided Berlin and then into World War 2. 

Kurt agreed as they entered the lobby of their hotel, “It’s strange to think that we just walked a half a mile and we crossed a border that millions couldn’t cross for over 40 years. It is surreal.”

Blaine stopped when Kurt said that, turning to look at him, “Woah, I never realized that. I mean, I always knew, but I never really realized how close you really were to…” Blaine stared off into space for a minute, “to the other side.”

Kurt nodded, which turned into another jaw-cracking yawn.

Blaine chuckled, “Good thing we’re back at our hotel.”

Kurt tucked himself into Blaine’s side for the elevator ride up to their room. When they got inside the room, Kurt stood there watching Blaine take off his shoes and change into something more comfortable. When he was standing there in just his boxers, Kurt grabbed his hip and pulled him close, kissing him soundly.

Blaine spun them around and backed Kurt up until his knees hit the bed, without breaking the kiss. Blaine broke the kiss only to smirk at Kurt before pushing him down on the bed. Kurt hit the mattress with a quiet “oof”; then he scooted up to the head of the bed. Blaine crawled up the bed over him. He kissed Kurt once more then said, “You’re still wearing too many clothes.”

Kurt sat up enough to unbutton and take off his shirt while Blaine undid his belt and helped him out of his pants. Once Kurt kicked his pants off his ankles, Blaine pinned him back down to his bed. Blaine kissed along Kurt’s jawline and down to his neck, pausing to gently suck at the spot just above his collar bone that always drove Kurt wild. Kurt’s moan turned into a jaw-popping yawn. 

Blaine looked up at Kurt, smiling as he looked at Kurt’s sleepy eyes. “You doing ok?”

Kurt yawned again, “Yeah I’m good. It feels good.”

Blaine chuckled, “Uh huh, I bet it does. The pillows are very soft and I bet the blanket is nice and warm too.”

Kurt lazily slapped at Blaine’s back, “I meant what you were doing.”

“It clearly seemed that way. What with the way you were yawning and falling asleep.”

“I’m not falling asleep.” Kurt’s point was somewhat unconvincing considering he yawned again at the end of his sentence. “I want to have sex with you, I’m so turned on.”

Kurt punctuated his sentence by thrusting up into Blaine’s hip. Kurt was hard, really hard. Blaine responded by grinding down into Kurt’s hip. This time rather than a yawn, Kurt responded with a soft breathy moan. “This is good, let’s just do this.”

Blaine smiled, “Should we take off our underwear?”

Kurt thrust up harder, “Nah. This is good. Really good.”

Blaine kissed him again, continuing to thrust harder and more steadily into Kurt’s hip. Their rhythm sped up and before long Blaine was coming in his shorts. He continued to thrust and stutter through his orgasm, and before long, Kurt was coming hard. Blaine rolled over off of Kurt’s chest and nestled into his shoulder. Kurt pressed a sleepy kiss into Blaine’s hair.

“Mmm, you’re so sexy.” Kurt mumbled as he drifted closer and closer to sleep.

“You too.” Blaine kissed Kurt’s chest where his head was resting, “Get some sleep.”

They both quickly fell into a deep sleep that was only disrupted when Ben came bursting into their hotel room to fetch them for dinner.

***  
 _They were shown into an office of an older woman. She was dressed fashionably, Bryan had to note, David noticed that she walked with a slight limp. She shut the door behind them, making sure they would not be disturbed._

_“Herr Gates. It is lovely to see you again.” She spoke in perfect English with a slight German accent. “Who are these lovely gentlemen with you?”_

_“This is my associate, David and his husband Bryan.”_

_She reached out her hand to shake both of theirs, “Lovely to meet you.”_

_Harriette gestured to the chairs in front of her desk, “Please.”_

_Once everyone was seated, Ben was the first to speak, “So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get right to business.”_

_Harriette smiled, “Of course. You came here for information about the lost art. Well, I will save you the question, I do not know where it is. If I did, I would have retrieved it myself.”_

_“Understandable. But Dr. Schneidermann, what do you know?”_

_She stood up and walked over to a filing cabinet, unlocking it and reaching inside for a small satin bag. She took it out and brought it to her desk. Everyone watched her intently as she removed an old fashioned skeleton key. “This key opens a large mahogany cabinet in my ex-husband’s apartment outside the city in München. Inside there should be information leading you to the treasure.”_

_“How did you get this?” David asked, pointing to the key._

_“My mother-in-law gave it to me a long time ago, she gave me the cabinet as a wedding present. I only learned that it contained the location of the treasure a few years ago. My ex-husband has been searching for this key since then. I told him I threw it off a mountain while skiing in Austria. As far as I am aware, he has not been able to open the cabinet.”_

_“How are we going to be able to get into the apartment with him there?” Bryan asked._

_Ben was quick to respond, “Don’t worry about that. The boys can distract him while we sneak into the apartment.”_

_“As good as your plan sounds, it won’t be necessary. Cornelius will be on his annual trip to the south of France. He’ll be gone for the next two weeks.”_

Ben animatedly retold everyone about the meeting, and detailed the itinerary for the next morning. Bright and early, well actually it wasn’t so bright, they boarded the train before the sun rose. Kurt was just grateful for the large mocha he was able to get in the train station. 

When they were just an hour outside of Berlin, Ben pulled out a map he printed the night before of the three blocks surrounding the apartment. “So this is the plan. Bryan and I will get into the apartment.”

“Wait.” Bryan interrupted him, “Why am I going to be the one getting into the apartment with you?”

“Because you speak German. You can tell the doorman that we are there to visit someone, or that we are from an art gallery to authentic one of the paintings, or whatever. Make up something convincing.”

“Ok, so what is everyone else going to be doing?” David asked.

“Kurt and Blaine will be out back, making sure the exit is clear so in case Bryan and I need to make a quick run for it, we can. Riley… uh, David, you will be with the car.” Ben gestured to different places on the map while explaining where everyone would be.

“So this is just a simple in and out?” Kurt asked.

“That’s the plan. The only two things we can’t predict is how long it will take to break into the apartment. I would imagine there is more than one lock, but maybe not, considering it is an older apartment building, and multiple locks would look suspicious. The other thing is that we know the cabinet is in the bedroom, or at least it was. But once we get into the cabinet, we don’t know where the information is. It might just be sitting in a labeled envelope, it might be hidden inside something, and that might take a while to uncover.”

Blaine waited until Ben was done talking before asking, “Should we see anything suspicious how are we going to communicate with you and Dad?”

“I think text message will work best. We also can see if we can get some simple walkies.” Ben said decidedly.

Everyone nodded, the map was folded and tucked safely back in Ben’s bag. Kurt pulled out his book to read while Blaine pulled up an episode of Project Runway to mindlessly watch on his iPad. Blaine snuggled into Kurt’s shoulder, content to be sharing space.

Eventually Kurt fell asleep with his book still flopped open and Blaine sleeping and drooling on his shoulder. When he awoke, his bladder protesting the large coffee he drank earlier in the morning. Kurt gently shifted his sleeping fiancé so he could get out of his seat and find the bathroom. Both David and Ben, who were sitting next to each other talking quietly, nodded at him as he passed.

When Kurt exited the tiny and slightly disgusting train bathroom there was a man waiting outside, Kurt maneuvered around the small space allowing the man to enter the bathroom. He was surprised when the man didn’t, but rather turned to follow him back through the car to his seat. Kurt looked back at him questioningly, his New Yorker instincts to give the man a scowl. 

“I couldn’t help but overhear you earlier.” The man said while Kurt was looking at him.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kurt responded, trying to get away, but the man quickly maneuvered so he was blocking the aisle.

“You do. I heard your, what’s the word, scheme? You are going to the apartment where the hidden plunder was found in Schwabing.”

“I really don’t have any idea what you are talking about, sir.” Kurt was trying to catch the attention of his family, but they were too far away to clearly see his pleading looks.

“Well, if you insist you don’t know what I’m talking about, then I will leave you be. But if you need an additional person to help you get what you’re looking for, let me know. I would be happy to help you out.” The man flashed Kurt a smile that was too bright to be genuine; it could only be devious and scheming.

Kurt rushed, as calmly and nonchalantly as possible, back to his seat, once he was there, he woke Blaine up. He whispered what just happened to him in Blaine’s ear; Blaine got more and more concerned the further Kurt got in his story. When he finished, Blaine got up and went over to sit by his Papa, who in turn whispered it to Ben. Kurt thought they were being rather obvious about the whole thing, but after the encounter, he didn’t see where the man went, and he may well have gone somewhere else.

Kurt was hyper-aware for the rest of the way to Munich. He couldn’t relax and read his book, he kept looking around and eyeing the other passengers suspiciously. Blaine eventually convinced him to switch seats to look out the window. Kurt eventually gave in and spent the last hour staring out the window watching the German countryside racing past him.

When they arrived, Ben went to get them a car, while Bryan and Blaine got lunch, and David and Kurt just sat and watched the luggage. At one point while they were waiting, Kurt thought he saw the man from the train, but by the time he blinked and looked again, the man was gone. Kurt chalked it up to being a little paranoid and decided not to tell anyone.

Ben drove the car to a park a few blocks from the apartment, they ate lunch quickly and relatively quietly, enjoying the view of the stream and the ducks while eating their lunch. Ben went over the plan one more time before they all climbed back into the car, which was a little too small to fit all five adults plus their luggage, but they managed, Blaine squished in the backseat between his Dad and fiancé along with two of their suitcases and all of the carry-on baggage. 

They pulled up to the apartment building. Its older, probably built in the very early 20th century. Ben parked the car on the other side of the small park that was in the middle of the street. Ben gave David strict instructions to wait by the car, keeping it unlocked incase they needed to make a run for it. Ben silently instructed everyone else to come with him, leading them the long way around the apartment so they could set up Kurt and Blaine on the back side, where they would hopefully be able to see the apartment from the outside. Once Kurt and Blaine were comfortable waiting outside the building, Ben and Bryan made their way to the front door to get into the apartment.

Ben looked at the lock for a second before checking to make sure the park was still empty and got his lock picking kit out of his pocket. Bryan stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Ben turned quickly, thinking that there was someone behind them. Bryan just shook his head and gently nudged the door open around Ben; the door didn’t latch securely. Ben nodded, slightly ashamed that he didn’t notice the unlatched door, but continued into the building. It turned out there was no doorman that Bryan needed to con, which he was pleased about. They got up to the third floor apartment quickly, Ben investigating the locks and figuring out which tools he would need to pick it open. Bryan looked around the floor, noting that there were only four apartments on this floor. He positioned himself near the stairwell so he could hear someone coming up or down but also so that he could see each of the four doors to the different apartments.

It took longer than Bryan liked, but eventually Ben was able to get into the apartment, the singular lock being old and harder to pick than he anticipated. Once they were inside the apartment, Ben locked the door behind them and went off searching for the mahogany cabinet. They found it as Harriette said, in the bedroom. It was clearly antique, most likely crafted in the 18th or 19th century. The wood right around the keyhole was scratched and slightly dented, like someone had tried to break into the cabinet. Ben quickly inserted the key, it turned easily and the cabinet opened with a groan. 

Bryan half expected there to be glittering treasure inside the cabinet, instead he found an old cabinet desk, which had ink and papers which hadn’t been touched since before the Nazis took over Germany. Ben quickly shuffled through the papers, concluding that none of the ones out, all letters to a woman called Gertraude. Ben handed the letters over to Bryan for him to start to decipher while Ben continued to look.

“These are all love letters,” he said turning the page over. “And some of them are fairly explicit. Wow. This one says that he can’t wait to marry her so he can quote ‘taste her precious flower’. Ew.”

“That’s great,” Ben responded distractedly, “Sounds like they are unrelated and unhelpful. Unless they have a date on them?”

“Um…” Bryan looked through the letters, finding a date on the very last one, “Yeah this one says February 13th 1943.”

“Good, ok. That means whoever wrote those letters is probably the one who hid the information in here.” Ben continued to carefully inspect the interior of the cabinet; eventually saying, “Can you help me look at this section here, it looks like it might be moveable.”

Bryan set the letters down on the floor and moved back over to the cabinet. Ben showed Bryan where he wanted him to pull, on one of the sidewalls near the top while ben put his penknife between the two pieces of wood near the top of the cabinet. Slowly they were able to move the wall out a few inches revealing a secret compartment, where they found an envelope.

“Success!” Bryan exclaimed.

“Not yet, let’s check to see what’s in it.” Ben said opening the envelope and placing the contents on the desktop. He shuffled through the papers, nodding at each one. He found one about halfway down the stack which had a map of an old salt mine just outside Salzburg. “I think this might be what we are looking for!”

Bryan looked at the map, “Yeah, that looks like it might lead us to where we need to go.”

Ben flipped through the rest of the papers, “Are you going to be able to translate some of these so we can get an idea of what’s on them?”

“Probably. If not I can always use GoogleTranslate.” Bryan said, joking.

Ben groaned and started to put the papers back in the envelope when Bryan’s phone buzzed. “What’s it say?”

Bryan’s disposition changed instantly, “It’s an SOS from Blaine. The guy from the train is outside.”

***  
Kurt and Blaine started out talking about how much they enjoyed Germany and all the fun things they hoped to do on the end of the trip – Blaine wanted to go to Vienna and see the famous opera, Kurt wanted to go to Paris and see, well everything. They eventually shifted to discussing the wedding, trying to make a few more plans while they had time. They were discussing the heated topic of flowers.

“Come on, Kurt. Red and yellow roses would be amazing. They have a wonderful meaning and they are the first flowers you ever gave me. It has sentimental value. We have to have them.”

Just then the man from the train appeared around the corner from where they were standing. “Kurt, is that your name?” He gestured toward Kurt, “Such a good German name and you have fair skin and blue eyes, I would mistake you for a German if I didn’t know any better.”

Blaine was glad he had been holding his phone in his hand and three years of texting Kurt in class without looking were finally going to be put to good use by texting a warning to his fathers.

“How rude of me, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Friedrich,” the man looked around, his devious smile returned, “This is an awfully suspicious place for you to be standing for someone who doesn’t know what Nazi plunder I’m talking about, Kurt.”

“I’m just taking in the sights. Not doing anything that concerns you.” Kurt responded icily. 

“Right. You’re not up to something, standing right outside the apartment where the plunder was found a few years ago?” Friedrich said.

“Not doing anything at all.” Blaine added. He took Kurt’s wrist and started to pull him away from Friedrich.

“Well, if you’re not doing anything, then I suppose you wouldn’t mind if I went inside the building to check out the apartment myself?”

Both Kurt and Blaine tried to school their faces so that he couldn’t read the momentary panic that flickered across their faces. Kurt responded, “Why would we mind?”

“Good. Then I’ll just head inside and leave you two alone. Goodbye, Kurt.” Friedrich turned back as he walked away, “Although I have a feeling we will be meeting again, very soon.”

Blaine sent a second message to his fathers, hoping that Bryan and Ben were already on their way out of the apartment.

***  
Ben picked the letters up off the floor and handed the stack of papers that were in the envelope to Bryan. You are going to carry the envelope out; I will hide the papers in the back of my jacket. Ben carefully tucked the papers in the back of his pants, hiding them behind his jacket. They left the apartment, locking it again on their way out. Thankfully there was no one else in the hallway to question why they were leaving the apartment of a man who was on vacation.

When they reached the ground floor, Ben headed to the basement and the back door out of the apartment to meet Kurt and Blaine, while Bryan walked out the front door with the envelope under his arm. As he exited the door, Bryan was met by the man from the train, Friedrich. 

“Was machen Sie hier?” he asked. _What are you doing here?”_

“Mein Fruend wohnt in dieses Wohnhaus. Er hat mir den Umschlag gegeben.” Bryan responded, trying not to let his nerves show. _My friend lives in this apartment complex. He gave me the envelope._

“Your German is very good. You almost had me fooled. But what is curious is that you mentioned the envelope you are carrying, especially when I didn’t even ask you why you had it.”

Bryan made to hold the envelope more protectively, which gave Friedrich the opportunity to grab it from him. Bryan cursed loudly. Friedrich opened the envelope and pulled out the stack of letters. He skimmed through three of them, Bryan was thankful the dated one was at the bottom. Friedrich put the letters back in the envelope and eyed Bryan suspiciously.

“What are you doing with letters like these?”

“Like I said, my friend gave them to me.”

Friedrich nodded, clearly not believing him, “I don’t trust you, or the two boys on the other side of the apartment. Just know, I’m watching you now.”

He turned on his heel and quickly crossed the park in the direction of David and the car. Byran searched for his husband, who was thankfully out of sight, along with the car. He breathed a sigh of relief when the man turned the corner and was out of sight. Then he noticed his phone was vibrating in his pocket. 

**Is he gone?** David texted him.

Bryan replied in the affirmative and less than a minute later, their car pulled around the corner with everyone else securely inside. “That was too close for comfort.” Bryan said breathing a sigh of relief to be behind the locked car door, “I thought you said that no one else knew about this, Ben.”

“As far as I knew, no one else did. This is the man that talked to you on the train, right Kurt?” Ben asked.

“Yeah, the same man, Friendrich is his name. He is very suspicious of Blaine and I now.” Kurt said surprisingly calm.

“Me too.” Bryan added.

“He hasn’t made David or I yet.” Ben said, “That’s good. We just need to be a little more careful.”

“So now what?” David inquired.

“I was hoping to stay in Munich for a couple of days and get the information translated, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. We can safely assume that Friedrich doesn’t know exactly where we are headed. Did he make the car, David?”

“No, I moved it when Blaine first texted. I watched him talk to you guys from a block away.” David responded, gesturing to Kurt and Blaine.

“Good!” Ben exclaimed, “You always had the right idea, Riley… David. So we can safely leave without him tracking us. But I wouldn’t say we are in the clear, I have a feeling he also knows where this is hidden.”

“So what’s the plan then?” Kurt asked.

“I think we should head to Salzburg and stay in a hotel there. Bryan can get the information translated and the rest of us can gather supplies and keep a low profile. Getting out of town now should buy us a couple days.” Ben said.

Everyone nodded. “Sounds like a good plan,” Bryan added.

“Ok, then we’re going to Salzburg. Which way?” David asked.

Ben directed him to the Autobahn and they headed east into Austria.

***


	3. Salzburg, Austria

Three days later.

Bryan was going crazy. Other than to get coffee and eat dinner, he hadn’t left the hotel room in three days. He hadn’t left the city block he’s in, in three days. It was driving him mad. The first day he ventured out to get a German-English dictionary, because despite his best efforts and acing all his high school and college German classes, he was out of practice and there was never a unit, in any of his classes, on reading and translating treasure maps.

Bryan had started the first morning with what was, in his mind, the most important page, the map that led through the mine and showed where the treasure was stored. He showed Ben the first night, who realized that it wasn’t a complete map, but showing from an access point, but no exterior markers to show where it was located. Ben had immediately said that he needed to go to the mine, on one of the tours, to figure out where the access on the old map was located. Ben had asked David to go with him, but insisted that the others should work on their other tasks, just letting him and David scout out the mine. Ben had wanted to go visit the mine on the second day, but just his luck, it fell on an Austrian holiday and Ben spent the whole day pacing the hotel room, bothering Bryan and generally driving everyone crazy.

Then the third morning, Bryan was doing his best not to curse at the pages and his dictionary and Ben and the whole goddamn treasure hunt, when his son and his fiancé came waltzing into the hotel room, or as Bryan had taken to calling it, his prison, and asked if he wanted to join them on the Sound of Music tour. Bryan put on a brave face and pretended not to want to go, telling the boys to have fun. In reality, Bryan wanted nothing more than to go on the Sound of Music tour with his family. Hell, even going on a scouting mission in the salt mine with David and Ben sounded better than translating another few pages of the documents they found. Bryan murmured curses as he walked down to the corner bakery for a coffee and pastry; it was the least they could expect of him if he was going to be stuck inside with dusty old papers all day.

***  
Kurt was bouncing; he couldn’t contain his excitement about going on the Sound of Music tour. He had been looking forward to it since the first night when he met Ben over a month ago and they started looking at places to visit and attractions to see. The Sound of Music tour quickly climbed to the top of both his own and Blaine’s must-see list. The fact that after three days of hanging out in the hotel room or in the café down the street, mostly doing nothing but keeping out of Bryan’s hair was wonderful.

Kurt couldn’t stop bouncing as they waited for the tour bus at Mirabell Square. They knew which bus was theirs as it pulled up; there was a giant picture of Julie Andrews on the top of a mountain on the side. They could hear a recording of “Do Re Mi” being pumped out to the street. Blaine handed their tickets to the tour guide and took the first two seats on the bus.

Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt’s shoulder, pulling him close and whispering in his ear, “I love you so much.”

Kurt smiled, “I love you too. Almost as much as I love Julie Andrews.”

Blaine bumped his shoulder, “Almost as much?”

Kurt shifted so he could plant a kiss on Blaine’s lips, Kurt mumbled against Blaine’s lips, “Well, you are better at kissing than she is.”

Blaine pulled back, “You’ve kissed Julie Andrews?”

“No.” Kurt responded, “I haven’t. But I can’t imagine anyone in the world being a better kisser than you are.”

Blaine laughed, “You are ridiculous and cheesy, but I love you. And I’m pretty sure no one in the world is as good at kissing as I am.”

Kurt smacked Blaine in the chest, “God, I’ve created an egotistical monster.”

Blaine growled and began to maul Kurt’s neck with kisses. Kurt barked out a laugh, happy and so glad to be spending time with his fiancé. 

Before long, the bus had filled up with American tourists and they were on their way. The tour guide, who had a thick Austrian-German accent to his British English, started off with the question, “As you know, we are in Austria. Where the Sound of Music was filmed. Do you know how many Austrians have seen the movie?”

The bus was full of guesses, most people guessing very high percentages, 75%, 80%, 100%, the lowest guessed was 45%. The tour guide responded, “You are all incorrect. Almost no Austrians have seen the Sound of Music, despite the fact that it was filmed here. Today I will take you to the locations where many of your favorite scenes were filmed, Mirabell Gardens will be our first stop, where ‘Do Re Mi’ was filmed.”

Kurt sang softly into Blaine’s ear when the guide stopped talking for a minute, “Do a deer a female deer, Re a drop of golden sun.”

Blaine continued, “Mi a name I call myself, Fa a long long way to run.”

When they got to the gardens, they had a lovely older couple, who were sitting behind them on the bus, take a picture of them posed together in front of the fountains. Then they took silly pictures on the unicorns, the best one with Kurt stroking the horn while Blaine peeked over Kurt’s shoulder, with both of them sitting on the unicorn’s back. 

After the allotted fifteen minutes to explore the gardens, the tour guide started the song that would tell them the next location – “Sixteen going on Seventeen”, the famous gazebo. It took quite a long while to get there from the center of Salzburg, but the time on the bus was worth it. They pulled up to the beautiful Hellbrunn Palace. Kurt rushed off the bus, with Blaine trailing right behind him, so they could get to the gazebo first.

They were not quite fast enough, because by the time they got there, everyone else was already in time. Blaine pulled Kurt down to sit on one of the benches near the door, then once they were alone in the gazebo, Blaine pulled Kurt up and started to sing “You are sixteen going on seventeen, Baby its time to think, Better beware, Be canny and careful, Baby you’re on the brink.”

Kurt gently smacked his arm, “You know I am no longer sixteen, going on seventeen. In fact if I remember correctly, you sang that to me on my seventeenth birthday. Even then it was cheesy.”

Blaine responded, “You loved it, both times.”

“I did. I do. I love you.”

Blaine preened, “I love hearing you say ‘I do’, I can’t wait until you can say it for real.”

“God, you are so cheesy. Why do I put up with you?” 

“Because you love me.”

Kurt kissed him, “Because I love you a lot.” Blaine smiled and kissed him again; he pulled back suddenly and jumped up onto the bench they had been sitting on. “What are you doing?”

“Come on, you know you want to lead me around the room just like Rolf did to Liesel.”

Kurt took his hand and began to dance with him around the gazebo. By the time they made one full lap, they were both laughing hard. Just then, the tour guide poked his head in and told them it was time to go. As they walked out the door, Kurt whispered, “You are seventeen going on eighteen.” They laughed the whole way back to the bus.

***  
That evening at dinner, Bryan announced he had finished translating the documents. Ben was thrilled, he excitedly told them about the trip to the mine earlier in the day.

_Ben and David arrived at the mines a little after 10am, just in time to catch the tour. They went in with a thankfully large tour group, so it would be easy to sneak away. Ben suspected that the entrance they were looking for was located on the far side of the lake. They stayed with the tour until they reached the far side of the lake, and while the tour guide was busy explaining how different antique machinery used to be used they slipped away._

_Once they were away from the group, Ben pulled a picture the map up his phone. “I think we need to go that way.” He pointed to a small tunnel on the other side of the hall they were in. They made their way over to the hall and started down a much narrower and steeper path. After about ten minutes of walking they reached a sign that read_ Staatsgrenze.

_“I was confused by this marking on the map, Bryan translated it as being Germany.”_

_David looked at the map and up at the sign, “This must be the border between Germany and Austria in the mine. So then according to the map, if we go to the right, that is where the art should be hidden – if we follow the strange path drawn on the map.”_

_“Exactly,” Ben said, excited, “And to the left, up the hill there, should be an exit.”_

_Ben began to lead the way to the left, David asked, “Don’t you want to go check out if the art is even there or if its just another clue?”_

_“No, I’d rather make sure we can get out tomorrow with the art. Besides, I don’t want to try to get a group of five to ditch the tour, I’d rather just come in from this other entrance.”_

_They carefully picked their way up the hill, rocks slipping out from under their feet making it challenging to get footing. More than once, they nearly fell down the steep slope. After what seemed like forever, they made it to the top of the hill. There they found a small room with a rusting cart with the Nazi swastika painted on the side._

_“Woah,” David said, “It seems like no one has been back here in quite a few years.” There wasn’t any telltale graffiti or litter signifying that people had been down here. There was also a significant layer of grime covering the cart._

_“So, this may have been something used to transport the art down to the bottom of the mine.” Ben said, in awe._

_“Now where do we go to get out of here? My guess is that if no one has been down here to draw graffiti, the exit is very well-hidden.”_

_“Most likely. We should go find it, then use a phone to get the GPS coordinates in order to find it again tomorrow.”_

_They continued their journey, climbing up at least three additional steep inclines, though none quite as steep as the first. An hour after they first set off from the entrance marked on the map, they reached a stone wall – which appeared to be made of rubble from buildings._

_“Do you think this could be rubble from bombed buildings?” David asked, mostly to himself, knowing the likely answer. Ben simply nodded._

_They began to work at getting the stones moved away. It seemed like they were making no progress at first, but then when one key piece was removed, the top half of the wall came down. It was not very thick, only about a foot and a half. Ben carefully climbed up the remaining wall to check the outside._

_A few minutes later, he returned to where David was waiting inside the mine. “It looks like this exit is in the middle of a forest, I’ll have to check a map when we get back to the hotel, but I think it might be fairly deserted. I did see a hiking trail, but there wasn’t anyone on it, that I could see.”_

_“Excellent. Did you get the coordinates?”_

_Ben smirked, “Of course.”_

_They made their way back down into the mine, on one of the steeper hills David said, “We should stop and get rope, I don’t want anyone slipping and hurting themselves tomorrow.”_

_Ben agreed. They continued back to the hall where they abandoned the tour group, to find that another tour group had just arrived. They slipped in with the group easily, blending in and making sure no one saw them arrive._

_When they were hanging up the mining gear they had for the tour, they saw him, Friedrich. He had been in the second tour; Ben hoped he didn’t notice that they had joined the group late. He was also grateful that Friedrich, while suspicious of the rest of their party, did not know who David or himself were. Ben subtly got David’s attention, nodding in Friedrich’s direction. David cast a glance and then looked back at Ben, a question apparent in his face. Ben nodded. They cautiously moved towards the exit._

_They were looking at a guidebook David had brought along just incase, when Friedrich caught up to them outside their car. He said, “Entschuldigungen Sie? Wissen Sie wo das Rathaus ist?”_

_“I’m sorry, we don’t speak German.” David said._

_“Oh, no problem. Do you know where the old city hall is located?” Friedrich asked._

_David flipped through the guide book, “Here.” He pointed to the map of Hallein. “It looks like it isn’t too far from here.”_

_“Oh, thank you so much for your help. Goodbye.” Friendrich started to walk away before he turned around and added, “It is awfully curious that you were on a German tour of the salt mines if neither of you speak German, isn’t it?”_

_Ben and David got into the car, and as they were driving back to Salzburg, they both muttered, “Fuck.”_

“So where is this alternate entrance located?” Kurt asked after Ben finished his story.

“Berchtesgarten,” both Ben and Bryan answered at the same time.

Blaine and David looked at the men, confused.

Bryan was the first one to explain, “In one of the pages I translated today, it said the location of the entrance was in the Berchtesgarten forest. How did you know that?”

Ben answered, “When Riley and I…”

Blaine interrupted him, “Seriously, you have been making the same goddamn mistake for two months now! His name is David! What will it take for you to get it right?”

Everyone at the table was surprised by Blaine’s exclamation. Both David and Kurt put their hands on Blaine’s arms, trying to sooth him. David said, “It doesn’t bother me, he called me Riley all day in the mine.”

Bryan took a long drink of his wine, “Anyway, how did you figure it out?”

“Well, when we were in the mine, I went out of the exit and had my phone pull the GPS coordinates, then I typed them into a search when I got back to the hotel. Quite simple, really.”

“Great, so what is the plan then?” Kurt asked. Everyone looked at him curiously, apparently trying to find a polite way of asking why he was suddenly so interested. “I am just really anxious to find this treasure. It feels like we are so close, and I just want to be the one who discovers it. Can you imagine, millions of dollars worth of art lost under a little town in Germany for nearly seventy years. Picassos and works by Matisse, I just can’t even imagine it.”

Blaine took Kurt’s hand and gave it a squeeze, “That is really cool. I hadn’t thought about what exactly it meant in a while. This would be huge. I can’t imagine recovering so many famous pieces of art.”

Everyone sat in silence for a long moment, no one really able to comprehend how close they really were to everything.

Ben was the first one to break the silence, “The plan, is to leave early tomorrow morning, hopefully get to the mine by 8am, it only takes about a half hour to get there. Then head down and hopefully find then art. There is an old cart we can use to bring it up.”

“Then what?” Bryan asked, clearly seeing the practical problem if there was as much art as Ben suspected there was.

“Then we figure out a way to get it to the proper authorities. Not the police, but art historians. How to show it to Dr. Schneidermann.” 

“That doesn’t seem like much of a plan.” Kurt added with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

Ben didn’t seem to notice, “We also need to get climbing rope.”

“What do we need rope for?” Blaine asks.

“There are a couple of steep slopes in the mine, we don’t want anyone to fall too fast.” David responded.

“That seems kinda counterproductive, if someone falls, wouldn’t they just pull everyone else down with them?” Kurt asked.

“Well, that is also possible. But if someone has sure footing, it can prevent someone else from falling.” Ben answered.

Kurt shared a skeptical look with Bryan. “Is that it then? Is there anything else we need?”

“No, actually I think we are pretty prepared. We should just be on the lookout for Friedrich.”

“Great, then let’s go find some plundered art!” Blaine said cheerfully.

***  
The next morning, they were all ready to go early, and set off with the navigation app on Ben’s phone barking out directions. They made it to the edge of the woods in under a half hour and found a good place to park their car in a lot for the hiking trails. Using the GPS they were able to find the entrance to the mine rather quickly. It was indeed in a deserted area, about thirty feet below a bridge on the hiking trail.

“I can see why this was a secure location.” Blaine said quietly.

“It was also secure because it was the vacation residence of Hitler during the war.” Kurt responded.

Blaine looked at him curiously, “I looked it up last night, I was curious. I knew the name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place where I knew it from.”

“That makes so much sense. Of course they would hide it near a type of fortress. It would have been secure, and then if someone wanted to go see the art, it wasn’t too far away.”

“I know. It really does. Although I’m surprised no one has found it in all these years.” Kurt said.

“That is surprising, but it is a secluded area, and off of the trail.” Just then they arrived at the entrance, which from the outside, didn’t look like anything at all. It looked like an outcrop of rocks. They were only able to tell it was the entrance to the mine because of the rocks removed from the top of the wall. “And it is very well disguised. If I didn’t know it were here, even if I were looking for it, I wouldn’t suspect this as being anything but part of the mountains. There is clearly something inside that is worth hiding.”

Kurt smiled, “I hope so!”

Everyone carefully climbed into the mine, Ben handed around flashlights to everyone and they all tied themselves together on the long length of rope Ben purchased. Kurt still thought it was ridiculous, even as he watched everyone losing their footing as they descended into the mine. 

They had been walking for almost an hour before they reached the cart Ben and David had found. Ben suggested, “We should see if we can push the cart down in case we do find something. Then if we don’t, there won’t be any clues for anyone else to find.”

Everyone agreed and Ben led the way, pushing the cart in front of him. When they were only a quarter of the way down the steep hill, he lost control and the cart sped down in front of them, a dull thunk when it reached the bottom.

“How are we ever going to get it back to the top?” Bryan mused.

Shortly after, Kurt lost his footing, slipping down and pulling Blaine with him. They tumbled down the hill until there was a sharp pull at his waist stopping any further movement. Blaine slid into Kurt’s back with an “Oof”. They laid there still for a long moment until David called from up the slope, “Are you ok?”

Blaine took a moment to assess himself, wiggling his fingers and toes, before answering, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little bruised.”

“Good, what about Kurt?”

Blaine nudged his fiancé gently, nothing. He carefully stood up, getting his footing and going around to Kurt’s front. “Kurt?” 

Bryan and David quickly made their way down to where Kurt was laying and Blaine was looking increasingly worried. Ben trailed behind, staying out of the way.

David bent down and checked Kurt’s head, he seemed to have a bump on one side. David carefully, while bracing his neck and back, rolled him onto his back to get a better look. He had a small cut on his head, with blood trickling down into his hair. David checked his pulse and for any broken bones and internal bleeding. Not long after, Kurt blinked his eyes and twitched his hand.

“Kurt?” David said softly. “You fell down a steep slope, I need to check if you’re ok. Can you wiggle your fingers for me?” 

Kurt did as he asked, slowly moving his fingers and toes. “Does anything hurt?”

Kurt swallowed thickly, “My head.”

“Anything else?” David asked.

“Yeah, my arm hurts too.” David looked where Kurt glanced; his arm was lying limply at his side. 

“Can you move your arm? The one that hurts?” Kurt was able to lift his arm a little bit before hissing in pain and putting it back down. “I won’t be able to tell without an x-ray, but I suspect you have a broken bone, or at least a fracture.”

“What do we do now, Papa?” Blaine said, clearly worried.

“We’ll make a sling and hope it is enough to last until we can get Kurt to a doctor.”

Ben, who had been standing quietly to the side, handed David his jacket to make a sling. David quickly tore off the pieces he needed and tied them tightly around Kurt’s arm. 

“Do you think you can sit up?” David asked.

Blaine quickly moved so he could prop Kurt against his chest. Kurt grunted but slowly was able to sit up and lean back. David tied the sling around his neck and checked to make sure it was secure. “How does that feel?”

“Ok.” Kurt responded, “Can I get some water?”

“Of course.” Bryan handed him his water bottle and he took a long drink. While Kurt was drinking, David checked on the cut on his head. It had mostly stopped bleeding, but the bump was quite large.

“Do you think you want to try standing up?” Kurt nodded slowly. “Bry, can you stand in front of Kurt and help pull him up. Blaine, I’m going to need you to make sure he doesn’t fall.” David said.

Bryan took Kurt’s hand and gently started to pull him up. Blaine reached up and rested his hands on Kurt’s lower back, once he was fully standing, Blaine’s hands drifted down, gently grazing Kurt’s ass. 

“How do you feel now, Kurt?” David assessed.

“A little dizzy, but ok.”

“You might have a concussion. We’ll just have to watch and make sure you’re ok in the long run. Do you feel like you want to go back to the car?”

“No!” Kurt’s exclamation was louder than anyone expected. “No, I want to help find the treasure. I don’t want to sit it out.”

“Good. Then let’s carry on!” Ben stated brashly. Blaine glared at his back and muttered something about an inconsiderate asshole, as he led the way down the hill.

Blaine was reluctant to leave Kurt’s side, insisting on walking right next to him, unless the path was too narrow, then just slightly behind him. When Blaine was standing right next to him, Kurt said to him, “You only agreed to keep me from falling so you could grab my ass.”

Blaine barked out a laugh that caused everyone else to look back at him curiously. Blaine slid his hand back down to give Kurt’s ass a proper grope, “I always want to grope your ass. I really don’t want anything to happen to it. Or you, for that matter.”

Kurt smiled at his fiancé, “Thanks. I don’t want anything to happen to your ass either.” 

When they made it down to the bottom of the hill, the cart was waiting for them, although crashed into one of the walls. They moved quickly and as quietly as possible, through the hallway closest to the caves used for the tours. They could hear voices speaking in German, but it was far off. Ben pushed the cart into the passageway marked on the map followed by Kurt and Blaine and David and Bryan at the back. 

Just like the map indicated, the path twisted and turned a lot, with many offshoots that, without the map to direct them, could lead them to be lost for days. Especially considering the path they needed to take was the narrowest and looked ever more like a dead end with every other path they passed. The anticipation was building the deeper they got into the mine, suddenly; they came to a fork in the path that was not indicated on the map.

“Now where?” Byran asked.

“I don’t understand,” Ben said, “According to the map it should be right in front of us. There should just be a room here.”

“Let me see the map.” Ben handed the map to Bryan, David looked over his shoulder. “There is a circle on the map here. What if the circle isn’t a room, but a circular path?”

“Then where is the plunder if it isn’t in the circular room?”

“I don’t know, let’s go look. Ben and I can check it out, David you stay here with the boys.” Bryan stated definitively. David looked at his husband with a curious smile. This was the first time he had ever suggested he do anything with Ben.

Bryan and Ben set off on the left branch of the path, everyone else stayed behind. Blaine said, “I don’t understand, where could it be?”

“It is likely that it is under something. We can be fairly certain the map is accurate because of the source, it comes from someone who helped put the art in the mine. Unless, we have a fake. But if that were the case, then we shouldn’t have found anything we’ve found thus far.” David said, more to himself than to anyone else.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Bryan came back in a rush, shouting, “We found it. We were both right. The path is a circle, but there is another path exactly opposite this one and it leads down into the storage room. Ben is already down there.”

Both Kurt and Blaine’s eyes were huge with disbelief. They made their way around, possibly too quickly; Kurt bumped his arm on the wall causing him to yelp in pain. Blaine was quick to rush to his side and make sure he was ok. David smiled watching his son and his fiancé, he was so happy to see them so happy. 

Blaine was really glad to see that the passage way down into the storage room had handrails on both sides, as well as lights. They could see that Ben had managed to power up the lights. When they walked into the room, they couldn’t believe their eyes. The round room was covered floor to ceiling in wooden shelves. On the shelves were stacked hundreds and hundreds of paintings, all carefully preserved in burlap sacks. In the middle of the large room, there was a circle of statues, most of which appeared to be classical in style, Greek and Roman gods and goddesses.

Kurt and Blaine stood frozen with mouths agape. They couldn't believe their eyes. It was real, the whole surreal and crazy adventure was real, the paintings, statues, and sculptures were right in front of them, all they had to do was reach out and touch them. But neither could move, they were glued in place. Eventually Ben came over, nudging Blaine’s arm, “Go look around.”

At that, Blaine gently tugged Kurt over to one section where no one else was standing, he reached up and pulled a painting off the shelf. It was still in its frame, as if it had been taken straight off the owner’s wall and brought here. It had a light blue sky above dark green pine trees, and a path with two people, a man and a woman, walking hand in hand. The woman was wearing a black gown while the man was wearing a light tuxedo. Blaine stared at the painting in awe, he was the first person in over seventy years to see this painting. Kurt’s expression matched his own, a tear slipped out of his eye. It was beautiful.

“I think it might be a Van Gogh.” Kurt whispered, not trusting himself to speak any louder.

Blaine could only nod. They were still staring at the painting when Bryan came over and put his arm around them, “Wow. Van Gogh. Its beautiful.”

“It really is. I can’t believe I’m standing here right now.”

“Me either,” Kurt echoed.

“Neither can I,” Bryan said.

Ben interrupted the moment by shouting, “Look, over here, the famed missing Raphael.”

The excitement continued as they uncovered more and more of the stolen art. After over an hour, David said, “We should probably get out of here, there are going to be tours in the mine by now, we don’t want to risk someone hearing, or seeing us.”

Bryan agreed, “Are we going to try to get some of it out, or are we going to leave it all here?”

Everyone turned to look at Ben, unsure how to proceed. They didn’t want to leave the art so close to the open public, unsecured, but by the same token, the art has been hidden here, in near plain sight, or at least not behind lock and key, for seventy years. Another day or two surely wouldn't be a problem. Except they knew at least one other person was on the same trail as them, Friedrich knew about the mine and was now very suspicious of the whole group. It was likely that it would take him a long time without the map to find the art, but it was also possible that he knew where it was, or could follow in their wake.

“We can’t get it all out, but we could leave someone here to guard it.” Kurt suggested.

Blaine looked at him dubiously. “Which one of us,” Blaine gestured at their group, “Is going to be able to fight off anyone who wants to come steal the art?”

“Besides,” Bryan added, “Any noise or light coming from us down here is more likely to alert someone than the art sitting here. It has been successfully hidden for a long time.”

“So what do we do?” Blaine asked.

“I think we should take some of the more prominent pieces we uncovered, the Raphael, Van Gogh, the Picasso over there,” David pointed to where he and Bryan had been looking at the art. “Fill one cart full of them, bring those back to Berlin to show to Dr. Schneidermann. Then we can bring a team down here to get the rest of the art.”

“I agree with Riley. He makes a good point.” Ben said. David and Bryan both sighed, Kurt shook his head and Blaine mumbled ‘seriously’.

Bryan was the first to recover, “Great. So we’ll load up one cart full of paintings and then head out. Kurt, why don’t you go up and wait with the cart, since you aren’t going to be able to carry paintings right now.”

Kurt nodded and started back up the incline. Blaine followed him closely. When they got to the top of the incline, Blaine pulled Kurt into a hug, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Are you going to be ok here?”

“Blaine, I’ll be fine. You’re just going to just be thirty feet away.”

“I know, I’m just…” Blaine sighed, “Being ridiculous.”

Kurt kissed him again, “You might be ridiculous, but I love you.”

Kurt leaned against the wall, careful not to jostle his arm. He was tired, but vibrating with energy. He was excited to have found the stolen art. He sighed and closed his eyes, it truly had been a magical and memorable adventure.

Kurt watched as everyone else carried the paintings up and put them in the cart. They filled the cart as much as they could, then began to push it out of the mine. Kurt and Blaine were leading the way, followed by Bryan and David, with Ben bringing up the rear with the cart. As they were nearing the main part of the mine, Blaine stopped short, when he saw a light on the wall in front of them; it was from another lantern. They were far enough back in the offshoot that it shouldn’t be anyone from the tour. He nudged Kurt and pointed at the light. They silently showed it to David who signaled Ben to back up and hide the art. 

David took the lead and slowly led the group out of the passage they were in. They found Friedrich and three other men standing at the intersection with three of the different off shoots. They could hear the three of them talking, Bryan translated the best he could.

“It sounds like they are arguing about which way to go. This may be able to work in our favor.” Bryan whispered.

David nodded and proceeded forward. When they reached the intersection, the other men looked surprised to see them, except for Friedrich.

“Oh, the Americans are here. Why am I not surprised to see you?” Friedrich said, voice dripping with disdain.

“Hallo Friedrich.” Bryan said in German. “Wie geht es Ihnen, heute?”

“Your German is very good, really. It's a shame you haven’t put it to better use. I’m doing well. What are you doing here?”

David was the first one to answer, “We were looking for the lost art.”

Kurt and Blaine looked at each other confused, both wondering why David would have told Friedrich the truth.

“So I was right all along.”

“You were.”

One of the other men said something in German, then Friendrich, “Otto here, is wondering why you are telling us this. I am also wondering this.”

“We are tired of competing with you. If we work together we can cover more ground in the mine. We just went down one of the passages back this way. We kept walking as far as we could, but eventually, there was no way to continue, the path just went in a circle.” David said.

Bryan added, “I suspect it was carved because there were especially rich rock salt in the center of the circle. There was a lot of markings that would signify that it was a very heavily mined area.”

Friedrich blinked at them, confused. “So, what are you saying?”

David proceeded to tell them the whole story of how they found the map and how it indicated several passageways in the mine. Then how they checked out the one that they deemed to be the most likely area to find the art. 

“But you have not found the art?” Friedrich asked.

“Not yet. But if we work together, we can hopefully find it.” Bryan said.

“May I see this map,” Friedrich seemed fairly convinced but was still unsure. David showed him the map and pointed to what he said was the path they had just come from, it was a short path with a circle at the end of it. In reality, the path he pointed to was the one that he showed was the one that led to the exit, with a small circle indicating the exit.

Bryan leaned over to point at the map, “We were going to investigate this branch next. But you can take that one and we can go look at this one.” 

“How do we know you are telling the truth?”

“Would we have shown you the map if we were lying to you?” David asked.

Friedrich genuinely seemed to be thinking about it for a minute before saying, “I suppose not. But I am suspicious.”

“Um… is there something we can do to help convince you?”

“No.” Friedrich said, “But if I find the treasure, or see that you’ve found it and show it to me.”

“Ok. We’ll go this way,” David pointed towards the exit, then pointed towards one of the wide paths that led nowhere according to their map, “You head that way, and we’ll meet back here at the end of the day.”

Friedrich put out his hand, David shook it, then they each headed on their way. When Friedrich and his men were out of earshot, Bryan whispered, “That was close.”

“Too close” David agreed, “Let’s get Ben and get out of here.”

They left the mine as quickly as possible, adrenaline fueling their escape, they managed to make it out of the mine in significantly less time than it took them to find the art. They loaded the rescued art into the back of their small car and headed back to Berlin to show what they found to Dr. Schneidermann.

***


	4. Epilogue: New York City

Six weeks later. Kurt and Blaine were sitting in the back of a limo.

“I can’t believe we’re in a limo.” Kurt said.

“I can. We found the greatest lost treasure, well since Papa and Ben found the mason’s treasure. Of course they were going to send a limo to bring us to the opening gala.” Blaine responded.

Kurt had put together fabulous matching suits for them to wear to the event; they were tuxedoes from the closets of vogue, precisely fitted to them by the best tailor in New York. The only flaw, in Kurt’s eyes, was the fact that he still had his arm in a cast and sling. Kurt’s arm was broken, and he did have a concussion. He was upset that he was going to have a cast for the rest of the summer. His concussion was better before their flight back to the US, but his arm was still going to be in a cast at the opening gala, and Kurt was unhappy about it.

When they showed the pieces to Dr. Schneidermann, she was flabbergasted. Her team went down to the mine the next day, and found all the art exactly where they expected it to be. When they arrived in the treasure room, they found Friderich and his associates there with along with a range of firearms, all illegal in Germany and even worse of an offence in Austria. Friedrich and his men were swiftly arrested for trespassing and possession of illegal weapons in two countries. They were all charged to minimum of five years in prison. One of Friedrich’s men was even wanted for suspected murder in Switzerland. 

Bryan and Blaine thought the art should be returned to the original owners, but when that proved impossible, they agreed upon Kurt and David’s suggestion of donating it to the great art museums of the world. The art was going to be distributed around the world to many different art museums, but first it was going on a five-year tour around the world. This was Ben’s idea, to bring the art to the people, because it was stolen from the people.

They were on their way to the opening event at the MoMA. As a finder’s fee, everyone had been offered one piece of art. Everyone declined, saying that it was too much, and would be unfair to keep one of these great masterpieces private and not let the world see them. Instead Kurt and Blaine took a fairly large sum of money, more than enough to buy a condo in Brooklyn, and move out of the Bushwick loft with all their friends. Blaine earmarked enough to take Kurt to Paris, because they never made it this summer, for their honeymoon. The rest of the money was put in a mutual fund.

When they arrived at the gala, they were met with photographers and a red carpet. Kurt put his arm around his fiancé, holding him close. They posed for pictures together, as soon as they were inside the museum, Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt’s cheek and whispered, “I never would have guessed the first time we walked a red carpet together would be because we found thousands of pieces of priceless art stolen during the second world war.”

“But I wouldn’t change it for the world.” Kurt said, kissing Blaine’s lips.

Just then Ben came rushing over, “Kurt! Blaine! I’m so glad to see you! How is your arm?”

“Hi Ben!” Blaine gasped out from inside Ben’s rib-crushing hug. Kurt was stunned, not by the hug, but by the garish bright pink suit Ben was wearing. He had his shirt unbuttoned three buttons too far and paired it with tan sandals. If he were attending an 80s wedding on the beach, his suit might have been acceptable. But for a black tie gala, he just looked woefully out of place.

Just then, Dr. Schneidermann came over with Blaine’s parents, telling them it was time for the unveiling. Kurt and Blaine walked through the exhibition together, whispering comments and admiring the art they hadn’t seen in the mine. Most of the guests were gathered around the fabled Raphael, but on the other side of the room was the van Gogh they had discovered.

Kurt led Blaine to the bench in front of the painting with his hand at the small of his back. After a long moment Kurt said, “Its just so beautiful.”

“There is something serene about it. “ Blaine said, “I want to know their story. How they met, how long they were together. Were they on their way to their wedding or just to the grocery store, or maybe just for a walk on a lazy Sunday afternoon?”

Kurt smiled, “We can write their story, we can live their story.”

Blaine looked at Kurt and smiled, “It all started one afternoon on a staircase…”

Kurt kissed him hard, his cast resting between them. Blaine pulled him close, and Kurt hissed when his arm got trapped in an awkward position between them. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. I’m just really tired of this cast.” Kurt said.

“You get it off next week.” Blaine said.

“I was supposed to get it off two weeks ago, but my arm wasn’t properly healed.” Kurt was upset that the cast ruined the line of his perfectly tailored tux.

“You still look perfect. You always look perfect, to me.”

“Thank you. Your bowtie looks amazing. “ Blaine smiled and blushed slightly and Kurt tugged gently on his lapels. “Your tux fits you perfectly.”

Blaine kissed him again, they were well on their way to making out when Bryan and David sat next to them. “Having fun, boys.”

Kurt sighed and Blaine took in the knowing looks on his fathers’ faces. “Hi Dad, Papa. We are having a lovely time. Are you enjoying the evening?”

“Its lovely, especially looking at all the art. Not that you’ve seen much of it,” Bryan nudged Blaine in the side, smiling at him.

“I think its time we see the rest of the art we found.” Kurt said, giving each of Blaine’s fathers a hug, then pulling him up and through the rest of the exhibit. Bryan and David had a knowing look on their faces as they watched the boys walk away arm in arm.

Later that evening when they finally arrived home, Kurt stopped Blaine in front of their fireplace. They stood there with their arms wrapped around each other looking at the framed poster above their mantel. Kurt broke the silence when he said softly, “They had the adventure of a lifetime, and they did it hand in hand.”

Blaine looked up at the full size poster of “The Lovers” by Vincent van Gogh and said, “Now we get to live our adventure hand in hand too.” 

Kurt pulled Blaine in for a kiss before heading to their bedroom, their adventure had already begun, they were just along for the ride.


End file.
